And we worry about infection

[Binkei Huckaback]

What are people's thoughts on new, packaged bottles?
Bought a box of 50, would love not to have to sterlilize them.

Yes. You should clean them properly as they could contain chemical residues, tiny pieces of glass etc. And then sanitse them as you should sanitise everything that comes into contact with wort or beer post boil.

Somewhere in this episode of The Brewing Network:

https://castbox.fm/x/1bsfs
Is a brief discussion on the matter. Those involved are (IIRC) Jamil Zaynachef (at the time he'd won more medals in homebrew competitions in the US than anyone else) and another highly respected US homebrewer

 

[Skyler]

The aspect I find most frustrating are the brewers who sanitize everything aggressively, then ferment with an ambient temperature of 26C. When their IPA end up tasting like rotten watermelon soaked in kerosene because they didn't manage fermentation temperature, they assume it's an infection caused by the dry hops or something.

Now, I have had an infection and the cause was reusing equipment (homemade plastic bottling wand) that had been used for a sour.

 

[Sadfield]

Really? If someone has "sanitised everything aggressively" they know contamination is ruled out as a cause. That's the point of doing it thoroughly.

 

[Skyler]

Really? If someone has "sanitised everything aggressively" they know contamination is ruled out as a cause. That's the point of doing it thoroughly.

One would think, but "it got infected by the dry hops" is easier to deal with than, "I need to manage fermentation temperature."

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Make sure you get rid of chemical residues by washing and then sanitise with a no rinse chemical product, and make sure you sanitise the scissors you use to open the yeast.

 

[jMac]

and make sure you sanitise the scissors you use to open the yeast.

You know what - I don’t think I’ve ever done that! Never even crossed my mind and I’ve not had any issues . Of course, now I’ve said that, I’ve alerted fate to the possibility of infection from dirty scissors so I’m going to have to sanitise my scissors moving forward.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I've never sanitised scissors it's as daft as using no rinse sanitiser because your tap water is contaminated.

 

[Clint Eastwood]

I've never sanitised scissors it's as daft as using no rinse sanitiser because your tap water is contaminated.

Scissors? What's wrong with your teeth?

 

[An Ankoù]

Scissors? What's wrong with your teeth?

You youngsters still got teeth?

 

[Clint Eastwood]

You youngsters still got teeth?

Well some of them.

 

[Skyler]

I think the point of no-rinse sanitizer is that your tap water is possibly contaminated. Of course this would depend on your tap water source. I tend to use a garden hose in my backyard for rinsing/cleaning, so I don't trust it to be sanitary. A while back, a friend of mine swabbed samples from every faucet in his house into petri dishes and the only one that formed a culture was from his kitchen faucet. So, presumably the toilet water is safe.

 

[DavidDetroit]

Anecdotal only: a guy working/brewing at a microbrewery said most of his day is taken up with cleaning and sanitizing.

I'll continue to sanitize containers and anything else that comes in contact with the room-temp wort/beer. I'd rather be good than lucky.

As a kid, my brothers and I would eat leftover hamburgers and hotdogs for breakfast that had sat out all night (but covered) in 30°C heat.
Never got sick but is that a reason to abandon the better odds, by using refrigeration?

You probably won't get hit by a car if you walk into the street without looking.

 

[pms67]

What are people's thoughts on new, packaged bottles?
Bought a box of 50, would love not to have to sterlilize them.

I bought 48 coopers bottles and didn’t sterilise them, just bottled two brews straight away and it was fine, some people go way too far imo but each to their own

 

[strange-steve]

I bought 48 coopers bottles and didn’t sterilise them, just bottled two brews straight away and it was fine, some people go way too far imo but each to their own

I too like to live dangerously, bottled a batch yesterday without sanitising the bottling wand. Actually it was mostly because I forgot, but the beer is almost 11% so I'm not too worried.

 

[An Ankoù]

Changed my cleaning regime earlier in the year so that every fermenter is washed in bleach solution and then rinsed and left with metabisulphite in it to keep it sweet. if it still smells of SO2 when I come to use it, it gets used otherwise it gets the treatment again. All this because I had a number of brews that stunk strongly of drains during fermentation and I wasn't sure whether this was due to a hard-to-shift infection or due to yeast stress. The worst was a Greg Hughes' Mild that I brewed up in April; this one smelled like a ripe cess-pit. Nevertheless I bottled it up in Perrier PETs and shoved it in a corner. Tried some in June and it was undrinkable. Tried again in July, still stunk of festering wheely-bins. Went to throw it out on Friday and had a little taste. No bad smell, no off flavour. Tried another one; same. Had a bottle last night, gorgeous. Obviously it wasn't infected and something had happened to make the yeast poo its pants, but given time, it cleans up after itself. Haven't had the problem recently as I've been paying more attention to yeast shock and stress, even adding a bit of nutrient if in doubt. So lesson learnt, but I'm still keeping the cleaning regime.

 

[micklupulo]

May I resurrect this thread with what might be a silly question? I am about to do a kit using enhancer but have an extra 200g of it left over from June which I am thinking of throwing in. This has been kept in a cool dry place in the original bag sealed with a plastic clamp.I would think the chances of anything noxious having got in are negligible but if I boiled it as a precaution would that have any adverse implications? In so far as I understand the chemical side of things I cannot see a problem but any advice would be welcome!

 

[marshbrewer]

Chuck it in, it will be fine. If you want to boil it in a bit of water for piece of mind, go ahead - nothing in beer enhancer (dry malt and dextrose) can be damaged by being boiled.

 

[micklupulo]

Chuck it in, it will be fine. If you want to boil it in a bit of water for piece of mind, go ahead - nothing in beer enhancer (dry malt and dextrose) can be damaged by being boiled.

Thanks!

 

[Nufc76]

I think there are a lot of homebrewers who talk absolute b******s about infections. They have never had one but perpetuate one of homebrew's myths having read about them somewhere. Provide you sanitise your brewing kit you have to be extremely unlucky to get one, especially since airborne infections are kept at bay by sensible precautions like 'keeping the lid on'. If traditional commercial brewers had suffered from infections by carrying out practices as described in the OP they would have abandoned them a long time ago.

Totally agree to that

 

[Nufc76]

Spot on Terry not saying its a urban myth but too many Nanny state people who sanitize beyond belief and its also driven by the main players who write the books many of us read as if they are gods?. Listen I have been brewing since the back end of the 70,s and I believe I have as much knowledge as them on the basics yes they can beat me on the chemistry side and technicalities but basic brewing No

Bet the beer kits have improved over the last 40 years